Prawn Mango Avocado Summer Salad

A terrific almost no-cook meal option or a great summer salad for a crowd. This is also how I make prawns (shrimp) stretch further!

Summer Salad – Prawns, Mango and Avocado!

I’m a bit fussy when it comes to fruit in meals. I never got on board the pork with apple thing. I’m not really a big fan of fruity sauces with roasts unless it errs more towards savoury or tart than sweet. But mangoes with prawns? It’s a match made in heaven. It’s like tomato and basil. They are just meant to be! Not that I’ve stopped there. Prawns and mango are the star ingredients in this summer salad, but just look at all the other goodness we’ve got here…. Creamy avocado – umm, hello! Juicy cherry tomatoes, fresh leafy greens, freshness from red onion and coriander/cilantro, all tossed through with a zesty lime dressing.. Who ever said salads are boring….! 😂

Make less prawns stretch further

You may have noticed that the prawns in this Summer Salad are chopped, which is a bit unusual. I do this for two reasons:

Stretch the prawns further – Big, juicy, bright orange prawns are in their prime during summer, but they aren’t cheap! Especially if you get really good quality ones. So this is how I make less prawns go further. By chopping them, you get to have a bit of prawn in every single bite rather than just 5 prawns on your plate that disappear in 5 seconds. (Oh wait, is that just me? 😂)
Eat with a spoon – chopped = food you can eat with a spoon of which I am a big fan. Partly convenience (eg eyes remain glued to TV / book whilst eating), partly laziness (no need to cut with knife and fork). Partly greediness (you can shovel way more in your mouth in one go).

Make it a meal

This is a Summer Salad that’s intended to be a meal. And while it would be lower calorie to skip out on any type of carb, I like to fill this salad out using risoni / orzo, rice (any type) or quinoa (see this recipe for how to cook it). You’ll love how it soaks up all the flavour from the juicy prawns, mango and the dressing! Giant couscous (pearl couscous) would also be ideal in this (cook it the way I do in this Israeli Couscous Salad). If you’re making this to impress, try using Wild Rice instead of risoni (cook it per this Wild Rice Salad recipe). The black colour and nuttiness of the rice looks and tastes spectacular!

How to make it

This is a straight forward recipe that calls for more chopping than anything else! Make the Lime Dressing first (just olive oil, fresh lime juice, garlic, S&P) to give the flavours time to meld. Cook the risoni/orzo. And meanwhile, chop the other ingredients, then bring it all together.

How to dice mango

Quick tip! Here’s an easy way to dice mango: Cut the cheeks off, score a grid in the flesh, then run a spoon around the rim then scoop the flesh out. And like magic, cubes of mango come tumbling out! Depending on the size of your mango, some of these cubes will probably be larger than ideal so just cut them a bit smaller.

I just realised that I’ve used far more photos than necessary for such a simple Summer Salad. I can’t resist. The self confessed Queen of Brown Foods (curries, gravies etc) is overly excited to be faced with all the beautiful colours in this salad. Colourful food doesn’t happen often around here. Let me indulge! 😂 ~ Nagi x